Work with BookTrust

BookTrust is the UK's largest children's reading charity. Each year we reach 3.4 million children across the UK with books, resources and support to help develop a love of reading - because we know that reading can transform lives.

Our programmes and campaigns are delivered via health, library, schools, early years and outreach partners.

Please note: Our usual home, unless otherwise specified, is Battersea Studios in London. We are currently a 'work from home' organisation due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. This will be reviewed on an ongoing basis in line with government guidance.

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Senior Programme Developer

Contract: Full time, permanent
Salary: £40,000 - £46,000 per annum

As a Senior Programme Developer, you will be working in the Design & Innovation team, leading the transformation of a range of offerings and interventions to support development against our strategic objectives. Aligning your work with other Senior Programme Developers and Head of Design & Innovation you will need to set and then activate the strategic learning journey to evolve the offerings and interventions to support BookTrust's ambitions.

With a background in and excellent track record of delivering impactful innovation, you will be a confident user of human-centred design thinking principles to guide product and service development and transformation. You will thrive on ambiguity and take an agile and flexible approach to developing our portfolio of offerings. This is a senior role in the design & innovation team and the successful candidate will be a role model for the new ways of working and behaviours that the organisation is implementing to make a bigger impact for the children who need us most.

Initially, you will be working on one of our core organisation objectives determining how to best support school aged children and their families to best maintain reading as part of a regular habit. Ensuring they are provided with appropriate and meaningful support to gain access to the broad benefits that harness the power of stories and an ongoing reading habit can bring.

The successful candidate will have real-life experience of leading a team of experts with different perspectives, skills and innovation experiences to identify, design and develop the portfolio of propositions to drive future long-term impact for children and families.

They will already excel at executing with excellence, with strong project and innovation portfolio management skills that create a bias for action. They possess the ability to empower and inspire a multi-functional team to work against common objectives and will also be curious and look to evidence, insights and the experiences of others.

BookTrust works through 152 local authorities, each with a coordinator, and tens of thousands of professionals delivering our work in the wider system – so we are looking for someone who can engage with the expertise and commitment of that network to build new innovations, embedded in the realities of local services.

How to apply

1. BookTrust are working in partnership with Aspire to fill this role. To apply for this role, please submit your CV and a covering letter of no more than two pages outlining your suitability in relation to the person specification to matl@weareaspire.com.
2. Submit written answers to the following two questions:
   1. 'How will you bring creativity, curiosity, collaboration and courage to the role to help you and BookTrust to achieve their ambitions of initiating and supporting a reading habit that lasts a lifetime?'
   2. One of BookTrust's ambitions is to help all children and families aged 4-13 (with a particular emphasis on those who are less affluent) to continue their reading journey even when big changes or new experiences can make this a challenge. Please provide a one page response as to how you would approach design & implementation of a broad programme of work to identify the innovation opportunities that best meet the needs of these beneficiaries and the steps you'd take to design & develop propositions to drive impact. Please also consider how you would collaborate with partners, how you would set and measure success criteria and how you would determine which groups of families to work with.

Closing date: Please note that this job may close once we have a sufficient number of applications.
Interview: Interviews will take place via Microsoft Teams.

Download the full job description

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Programme Developer

Contract: Full time, permanent
Salary: £32,000 - £34,000 per annum

As a Programme Developer at BookTrust, you will be working in the Design & Innovation team supporting the strategic transformation of programmes, offerings and interventions to best support our beneficiaries through the initiation and maintenance of a reading habit that lasts – so that BookTrust can make even more of a difference, in particular, for children in greatest need.

We are looking for a human-centred, innovative and creative Programme Developer, who will scope, design and test new idea concepts and propositions that support children reading. You will work on improvements to existing approaches, in partnership with colleagues and partners as well as take a lead in identifying and developing potential new innovation opportunities that fit against our strategic objectives.

You will have experience of planning and executing co-design and co-production activity to generate, prototype and test a range of ideas as well as an ability to analyse and articulate problems to solve will be of great benefit.

How to apply

1. BookTrust are working in partnership with Aspire to fill this role. To apply, please submit your CV and a covering letter of no more than two pages outlining your suitability in relation to the person specification to matl@weareaspire.com.
2. Submit written answers to the following two questions:
   1. 'How will you bring creativity, curiosity, collaboration and courage to the role to help you and BookTrust to achieve their ambitions of initiating and supporting a reading habit that lasts a lifetime?'
   2. Please provide a one-page case study example of a product or service innovation that you have worked on that you think demonstrates your human-centred and innovative mindset. In your example, please demonstrate your approach to identifying the innovation opportunity, the steps taken to design and develop the idea, and the role you played in testing the idea. Think about how you involved others in your project and what you learned from any challenges you faced.

Closing date: Please note that this job may close once we have a sufficient number of applications.
Interview: Interviews will take place via Microsoft Teams

Download the full job description

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Assistant Programme Developer

Contract: Full time, permanent
Salary: £28,000 per annum

As an Assistant Programme Developer, you will be an integral member of the Programme Design & Innovation team, delivering impactful initiatives that get children and families reading. Children who enjoy reading and who are read with when they are young have better life chances – they are more confident, empathetic, resilient and more school-ready.

We are looking for someone who is curious about how we can develop initiatives that will achieve real behaviour change in families across the country. You will have a keen understanding of the importance of using consumer or beneficiary insight or co-creation to really understand their lives and how we can make a difference.  You will need to be creative and courageous in developing and testing out new innovative ideas and making them into a reality. You should be able to demonstrate that you are collaborative, working closely not only with the rest of the team, but also across the organisation, local authority partners and the families themselves and will thrive in a fast-moving, multi-disciplinary context.

How to apply

1. BookTrust are working in partnership with Aspire to fill this role. To apply for this role, please submit your CV and a covering letter of no more than two pages outlining your suitability in relation to the person specification to matl@weareaspire.com.
2. Submit written answers to the following two questions:
   1. 'How will you bring creativity, curiosity, collaboration and courage to the role to help you and BookTrust to achieve their ambitions of initiating and supporting a reading habit that lasts a lifetime?'
   2. Please provide a one-page case study example of your favourite social product or service innovation. In your response, please provide details as to why this example should be considered a great innovation. What are the key design elements and unique characteristics that make it stand out? Please also highlight how you would approach testing this innovation out with beneficiaries to demonstrate its value and impact for the end user.

Closing date: Please note that this job may close once we have a sufficient number of applications.
Interview: Interviews will take place via Microsoft Teams.

Download the full job description

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BookTrust is an equal opportunities employer

We aim to ensure that no job applicant receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, marital status, race, colour, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, age or disability and that all appointments are made solely on the basis of merit.

In order that our equality policy is effective we carry out regular monitoring of job applicants, and we would therefore ask you to complete the equality monitoring form.This information will be kept centrally within our secure HR department, completely separate from your recruitment application form and will be used for the sole purpose of compiling statistical information. The information will be separated from the application form and will not be given to the selection panel. The completed monitoring form will be destroyed once the information given in it has been collated.

BookTrust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

Charity no. 313343.
No contact from agencies, please.